Rahman, AT;
Frangeskou, AC;
Kim, MS;
Bose, S;
Morley, GW;
Barker, PF;
(2016)
Burning and graphitization of optically levitated nanodiamonds in vacuum.
Scientific Reports
, 6
, Article 21633. 10.1038/srep21633.
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Abstract
A nitrogen-vacancy (NV(-)) centre in a nanodiamond, levitated in high vacuum, has recently been proposed as a probe for demonstrating mesoscopic centre-of-mass superpositions and for testing quantum gravity. Here, we study the behaviour of optically levitated nanodiamonds containing NV(-) centres at sub-atmospheric pressures and show that while they burn in air, this can be prevented by replacing the air with nitrogen. However, in nitrogen the nanodiamonds graphitize below ≈10 mB. Exploiting the Brownian motion of a levitated nanodiamond, we extract its internal temperature (Ti) and find that it would be detrimental to the NV(-) centre's spin coherence time. These values of Ti make it clear that the diamond is not melting, contradicting a recent suggestion. Additionally, using the measured damping rate of a levitated nanoparticle at a given pressure, we propose a new way of determining its size.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Burning and graphitization of optically levitated nanodiamonds in vacuum |
| Location: | England |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1038/srep21633 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep21633 |
| Additional information: | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Physics and Astronomy |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1478159 |
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